Tips to ace medical school interview questions on healthcare

Sophie curates content for Gap Medics, the world’s leading provider of hospital work experience placements for school and university students.

Sophie curates content for Gap Medics, the world’s leading provider of hospital work experience placements for school and university students.

Nothing can beat the excitement of receiving an invitation for a medical school interview. The medical school interview is a crucial step in your application acceptance and you will want to be as prepared as you can be so you ace it. The first thing you need to do towards your prep work is to be aware of the kind of questions you will be asked so you can prepare the most appropriate answers.

Stay On Top Of Current Healthcare Topics In The News

Here are some of the common questions that most interviews ask med school applicants on current healthcare issues:

How can you deal with rising healthcare costs?

How can you make a change to the healthcare system?

What changes do you think will come about in the healthcare field over the next decade?

What is your opinion about the government’s role in healthcare?

What do you understand about the Affordable Care Act?

These are the questions that you should be prepared to answer. Healthcare and reform are the two main topics that you will be questioned about and the interviewers will want to know what your opinions are. It is very important for students as well as doctors to be up to date with current issues and topics in the medical field and also about any changes that might occur in the immediate future.

It is critical for you to understand how important all these questions are. With your answers, the interviewers will want to know what you know about medicine and also the other relevant issues related to the healthcare domain. Sometimes you might also be asked to discuss certain controversial situations and issues that are related to professionalism and ethics. It is important to be aware of current debates and issues in the medical field.

What Interviewers Look For In the Applicants

The interviewers will be looking for:

Depth of knowledge

General understanding

An ability to defend their rationale around healthcare

The Judgement Game

Though the interviewers will be judging you on many fronts, they do not expect you to be on top of every topic and issue. However, these questions allow the interviewers to gauge how aware you are about the world around you and all the relevant current topics.

Changes in the healthcare system also affect the manner in which practitioners operate. Interviewers are definitely looking for able and competent applicants but they also want people who are street smart, able to think on their feet and have a certain amount of flexibility.

The Expectations

Medical schools want students who will be able to seek solutions to the problems that the healthcare industry is facing or might face in the future. They want to see candidates who are able to diagnose and treat issues in the system as much as they want brilliant doctors.

The idea being that medical care is not only about the operating table or bedside care. It encompasses a lot of other factors and awareness about those factors is all –important. Acing the medical school interview is about understanding how to field these questions and creating a certain amount of credibility.

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